Tips for a Happy Ecommerce Christmas

Despite the current economic climate online shopping or e-commerce is still one of the fastest growing markets within Europe were sales in the UK alone during 2010 were £44 Billion or 10.7% of the UK retail trade (CRR Research commissioned by Kelkoo). And this is expected to grow to 14.0% with online sales reaching £50.3 billion meaning that the UK will be the first European country to have e-commerce sales of more than 12% it’s an exciting prospect but are you ready for growth of your online business throughout the upcoming silly season?

Surveys and findings from the past have long since shown us that the younger generation will quite happily purchase most things they need or want through online shops, although in recent years more and more sites are beginning to accommodate the older generation as this is an area that is proving to be a growing sector, but what else can we do to up our game and gain those all the more lucrative sales and conversions over the Christmas period.

One area of your websites that we are always preaching about is content, it is essential for the continued success of your e-commerce business to ensure that there is always a steady stream of fresh and relevant content on your site, well written and keyword based articles and news items will help to drive repeated traffic to the key areas and landing pages of your site, especially if these are pages that are detailing your latest offers and services.

Make sure that your Christmas delivery times are easily accessible and more importantly ensure that your cut off points for Christmas delivery are clearly defined, there is nothing worse than coming back in from your seasonal holiday to a mountain of complaints because you have dissatisfied customers who didn’t receive their goods in time.
Make sure that if it is possible to use an upsell in your shopping cart that you are making good use of it, customers are looking to buy and if you have a relevant item to their purchase that is also an absolute bargain or very special offer than statistically they are more likely to buy this item alongside an existing purchase.

Look into using the new social networks for improving your customer service, if you have an online chat system ensure that it is manned during your normal business hours, prompt and satisfactory response to enquiries helps maintain good communication with your customers and this ultimately will encourage trust in your brand and your business promoting better relationships and long term loyalty from your customers.

If you have a blog on your website make sure that you are posting to it regularly, this is a great way of keeping your customers updated on news and special offers that you may have and again is a great way of providing fresh and relevant content to your site. If you don’t have one then don’t forget that for a limited period we can still offer a free blog installation with any of our e-commerce seo packages.

The internet is without doubt one of the first places consumers go to research and in many cases ultimately buy product and services, ensuring that your customers can find what they want from your website is a sure way of seeing your e-commerce business succeed.